Essay on Inspector Goole's role in the play, his reliability as a policeman and Priestley's usage of the Inspector in the play.

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Introduction

Inspector Goole is the main character in the play, "An Inspector Calls". The play was written by J B Priestley in 1945. This author wrote this play to pass on his message which is against capitalist attitudes and class division. The playwright made this play especially against the point mentioned by Arthur Birling which was that "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own", (Act 1, pg 10). Exactly after this speech Priestley make the Inspector ring at the door bell, creating a dramatic irony to prove to the audience that Birling's statement is wrong. In this essay I will examine how the inspector breaks down that Birling family's fa�ade to layout all these moral issues to the audience. Inspector Goole is actually a form of J B Priestley himself because they both share the same views. ...read more.

Middle

The Inspector extracted all these facts by asking them the questions individually but strangely in one place, together. He asked them in a very clever and twisted way which just revealed it all. He uses the photograph of Eva Smith as strangely as he asks the questions. He makes this more obvious by saying, "It's the way I like to go to work. One person and one line. Otherwise, there's a muddle."(Act 1, pg 12). He makes them realize how stupidly they used the higher class authority to exploit a more vulnerable member of society. To the audience it was very likely that he was not an ordinary inspector but to the Birling family he was the believed Inspector. Only after he had left the house did they realise that there was something strange going on. It was only Sheila who first thought of this after Goole had left by asking "It doesn't much matter now, of course - but was he really a police inspector?" ...read more.

Conclusion

At the end of this play we found out that Inspector Goole was a fake but his message which was true was left, so his job was done and Sheila took over his role. In my opinion I think J B Priestley is very clever because he passes on his simple message issuing his views by a very complex detective story line. This story line works and is very effective because it shows the consequences of being very careless about the society. Therefore audience will be put into an uncomfortable position to realize this. I have learnt from this play about the consequences of being careless about the society so other people can learn too, but as we all know, there are ignorant and closed-minded people in this world who don't like changes like Arthur, Sybil and Gerald. So there will always more like them persuading people to believe the opposite message although we'll know that its not right. Argha Sarkar 10E ...read more.

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